Capital Region bookseller comes to Rhode Island mall’s aid

After Borders Group announced it was shutting down, the scramble was on to fill the empty Borders and Waldenbooks stores that resulted. In Wakefield, R.I., the owner of the local mall turned to a couple of independent out-of-state booksellers to keep the bookstore there operating.

In an article in today’s New York Times, Susan Novotny, who operates The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland and Market Block Books in downtown Troy, tells how mall owner Jeff Levy contacted her about keeping the Waldenbooks store in operation.

Levy told her he’d be the owner, investor and landlord, overcoming her concerns about unaffordable mall rents. She and a Massachusetts-based bookseller have continued to operate the former Waldenbooks, now called Wakefield Books, keeping the staff in place. The New York Times story is here.